Use Your Brain

Stephen Hong writes:

Recent research by a South Korean Catholic hospital has shown that adult stem cells can provide a highly effective treatment for malignant brain tumors and other types of cancer. The result vindicates the Church’s stance that opposes the use of embryo stem cells but approves research with adult cells or artificially derived ones. Research by a team using led by Professor Jeon Sin-soo-led of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital of the Catholic University of Korea has just been published in the journal, Stem Cells.

The team’s research showed that a treatment using mesenchymal stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood increased the effectiveness of radiation treatment in a mouse suffering from a malignant brain tumor. The size of the tumor was found to be much reduced. The treatment has not yet been trialled in humans. If successful, Professor Jeon told ucanews.com that the treatment could be effectively applied to various cancer types including leukemia, breast, stomach and liver cancer.

Some 500 people a year in South Korea suffer malignant brain tumors. The disease has a high rate of recurrence as it is difficult to eliminate by surgery. Human stem cells may be obtained from adults, surplus frozen embryos or from cloned human embryos created by transplanting a cell nucleus into an egg. However, human embryo stem cell research has been stopped in Korea due to bio-ethical concerns. According to a 2009 statement issued by the Korean bishops’ Bioethics Committee, research using cells that are not derived through the manipulation or destruction of embryos pose no ethical problems.

So much for the persistent use of the term "stem-cell research" to mean scientifically worthless but morally abhorrent playing about with embryonic stem cells, together with the viciously cruel justification of this by reference to an ever-longer list of medical conditions. The real stem-cell research involves adult and cord blood stem cells, is ethically unproblematic, and has already yielded real results, but struggles to secure funding because it is of no interest to those who cannot forgive the Catholic Church either for having educated them or for having educated the wrong sort.